Nasser Al Khater
Qatar is celebrating it's sixth anniversary of winning the 2022 FIFA World Cup bid by renewing their pledge to delivering 'one of the most unique World Cups ever'.
On December 2, 2010, Qatar beat bids from Australia, Japan, South Korea and the United States in a historic FIFA vote held in Zurich.
Nasser Al Khater, the Assistant Secretary General for Tournament Affairs at the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC), said, "Just as we imagined and said from day one, the first World Cup in the Middle East and the Arab world will allow a lot of fans to witness the region for the first time. People will be introduced to a new culture, new traditions, an area of the world which is vibrant and rich in culture.
Al Khater added, "This will be one of the most unique World Cups ever, not just because of the compact nature of the tournament, but because of what the region has to offer."
Al Khater said careful planning has allowed SC to make smooth progress in all areas of preparations.
"We’re very proud of where we are in terms of stadium preparations as the Supreme Committee, responsible for delivering all of the stadiums and training sites and all the requirements for the World Cup," Al Khater said in an interview posted on the SC website.
"But we’re also very proud of our stakeholders, the public works authority that are delivering all of the highways and the roads that are going to be necessary for an incredible and successful World Cup.
"Also our partners for the Doha Metro at Qatar Rail, our partners at Hamad International Airport, who will be building the expansion to the beautiful airport, all of us together are building the requirements for the World Cup, and we’re very proud of where we are," he said.
Al Khater admitted SC has faced and dealt with challenges in the last six years.
"Challenges have been there from the beginning. As with any World Cup organisers, there will always be challenges. If you talk about critics, there have been critics from the day we were bidding, and there were critics from the day we won," Al Khater said.
"Qataris by nature are resilient and can endure. We’ve listened to our critics and we’ve answered our critics. I think it’s time now for our critics to listen to us. I think that in 2022, when the world descends on Qatar to watch the World Cup here, our critics will be proven wrong. All mega events attract criticism.
"Have I been surprised at times at the severity? Yes. But it doesn’t concern me what the motive is, what concerns me is that we deliver on our promises and ensure that we deliver a unique and enjoyable World Cup," he said.
Al Khater said the decision to engage communities living in Qatar had helped the SC teams plan better.
"It is imperative to have the support of the local and regional communities. We believe this World Cup is for them, this World Cup is not only for Qatar, it is for the football community and football lovers and fans of the region," Al Khater said.
"We’ve continuously had programmes engaging them. We make sure the communities which have stadiums nearby are engaged, and we asked them what kind of facilities they feel are necessary, what kind of services they need.
"We have been able to provide a lot of what they requested into the stadiums and precincts. Regionally we’ve engaged a lot of fans through football tournaments, as a way of using football as a platform to pass on the messages of this regional World Cup," he said.
Al Khater said workers’ welfare remained a topic of top priority to the SC. He said, "Progress on workers’ welfare, not just in the Supreme Committee but within the country as a whole, has taken great strides forward. We’ve seen the benefits that our workers’ welfare standards have had for workers, and other organisations have recognised these benefits by instituting similar standards into their contracts."
